NORTH Ayrshire & Arran MP Katy Clark has once again rebelled against her party – by voting in favour of scrapping Trident.

In the Commons debate last Tuesday, a motion was put forward by the SNP, Green Party and Plaid Cymru calling for the replacement of the current Trident nuclear weapons system to be halted. And despite a boycott of the debate by the majority of Labour Party MPs, Ms Clark – along with Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock politician Sandra Osborne – were the only Ayrshire MPs to vote against the renewal of Trident. However, only 35 MPs voted not to renew Trident with 364 in favour of retaining nuclear weapons.

In the run-up to the debate, Labour came under fire from the SNP for refusing to take part.

But Ms Clark once again refused to toe the party line, almost a fortnight since she voted against further Conservative-backed austerity cuts.

Speaking this week, the MP said: “I do not believe that Trident can be justifiable due to its destructive potential. I am extremely concerned about proliferation and we need to put all our political efforts into stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.

“In a time when we are seeing massive public spending cuts, the money spent on Trident could be much better used elsewhere. Given the catastrophic implications of a nuclear strike it is essential that we do everything possible to prevent this from occurring.

“Supporting a nuclear weapons convention would be sensible step that could be taken to reduce the likelihood of such a strike.” Ms Clark added: “I also believe both the Scottish Government and the Westminster Government should be investing heavily in defence diversification, because that is essential if we are going to put our communities in a position where they are not reliant on one particular weapons system.

“North Ayrshire has a proud industrial past and our resources should be re-focused on investing to develop new industries and sectors which provide the jobs people need and which are socially productive.